February 21st, 2012 by TRT Blog

For our crew members and site managers, being able to travel to some of the most historical and beautiful cities in the country is a major job perk, and our most recent refinishing project is no exception. Located in New Orleans, the Windsor Court Hotel and The Refinishing Touch have just completed a second project to refinish its unique interior as part of its plans to renovate the entire hotel. This is the first full renovation the hotel has seen in 13 years.

While our crew members dedicate long days to making sure their work is above par and finished on (if not before) schedule, in their downtime they got the chance to experience all that the New Orleans culture had to offer, from the food to the architecture to the night life, made easy by the Windsor Court’s convenient location to the city’s historic French Quarter.

But it’s not just the city’s offerings that The Refinishing Touch crew got to take advantage of. The Windsor Court Hotel has quite the history itself. Built in 1984 by a New Orleans businessman, the Windsor Court is the tallest building in New Orleans and is currently the 10^th tallest hotel in the US. It also boasts an impressive art collection, including pieces by Anthony Van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough and Joris-Karl Huysman. The hotel recently returned to local ownership after 18 years and demonstrates the decadent style of New Orleans as the only four star/four diamond hotel in the city.

new Windsor Court Hotel chairs

After previously working with the hotel in 2005, The Refinishing Touch and our crew returned in 2011 to refinish and reupholster the furniture in all 316 rooms of The Windsor Court Hotel, including dining tables, sofas and chairs, among many others. We’re proud to be able to maintain such a great relationships with one of the most awarded hotels in the country.

And if you ever find yourself heading to New Orleans, either for leisure or business, be sure to check in at the luxurious Windsor Court Hotel and see for yourself what this great hotel has to offer. For more information about the hotel or to make a reservation, visit www.windsorcourthotel.com.

French Quarter, New Orleans, refinishing, refurbishing, The Refinishing Touch, Windsor Court Hotel

February 15th, 2012 by TRT Blog

Here at The Refinishing Touch, our goal is to provide services that not only help our clients manage their furniture assets, but help them manage budgets and reduce environmental impact as well. Now, after months of hard work and preparation, we’re happy to announce that The Refinishing Touch has been named as a Best Western preferred vendor. Everyone on our team is very excited about this new partnership and is eager to being working together with this great hotel organization.

The Best Western brand and its franchised associates are dedicated to providing stylish, up-to-date accommodations for quests while embracing a cost effective alternative to buying new furniture, and by naming The Refinishing Touch as a preferred vendor, have seen our mission to do the same. By working together, The Refinishing Touch and Best Western have begun a project to convert all of its armoires to accommodate flat screen televisions by December 2012—providing an enjoyable hotel experience for travelers around the country.

We are honored to be part of Best Western’s preferred vendor program and look forward to completing many more projects for the brand and its hotels. For more information on The Refinishing Touch’s services, visit www.therefinishingtouch.com.

Best Western, furniture assets, preferred vendor

February 3rd, 2012 by TRT Blog

Attending industry conferences is one way The Refinishing Touch stays in tune with the needs of our clients across different industries. These conferences and events bring together everyone from business managers to service buyers, with the overall goal to create new ideas and partnerships. And as it turns out, January was a busy month for a couple key events

The first of which was the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, or better known as ALIS. This year the conference took place from January 23 to 25 in Los Angeles, California. This summit is the largest hotel investment conference in the world and attracts more than 2,000 people each year. Attended by countless industry experts, we were able to participate in numerous networking opportunities, panel discussions and seminars throughout the conference.  The conference is uniquely designed for the hospitality investment community, including hotel executives, investors and lenders, developers, and professional financial advisors. 

Another industry conference, the PHMA/MHLI Professional Development Seminar (PDS) which took place from January 29 to February 3^rin San Diego, California, provided insight into another important industry for us, the government. PDS always puts on a great PHMA event for all of those in the government sector, particularly military housing. PHMA is an educational event that provides general learning sessions and informational courses as well as ample time to network.

 Here at The Refinishing Touch, we always enjoy opportunities to attend conferences and events. While we pride ourselves on great services and customer communication, it’s also important to gain new and different perspectives from industry experts in order to stay up to date with industry trends and goals.

ALIS, Americas Lodging Investment Summit, hospitality, hotel investment, PHMA

January 27th, 2012 by TRT Blog

When working with clients, there are several different ways
The Refinishing Touch helps transforms their properties and assets, across the education, hospitality and government industries. From armoire conversion to refurbishing, The Refinishing Touch transforms existing assets to like new condition while minimizing out-of-pocket costs.

One important aspect of The Refinishing Touch is upholstery. While it may seem like a small part of refinishing and refurbishing, reupholstery can make a big difference when updating existing furniture. Over time, fabrics often lose their luster or become outdated, but replacing furniture can be costly and time consuming. Reupholstery is a great, cost effective alternative to buying new while still updating and extending the life of your furniture.

Here at The Refinishing Touch, we help clients breathe new life into their furniture with reupholstering. We use our original, Touch Textiles, which offers a wide variety of patterns and colors, ensuring that clients across all sectors find exactly the fabric they’re looking for.

Touch Textiles offers a large selection of choices, and with the help of our in-house design team, clients are sure to achieve the look they want. The best way to understand how reupholstery can change the look of a piece and an entire room is to see for yourself. Take a look at how our Touch Textiles have helped clients achieve a new, updated look without the cost and hassle of buying new furniture.

Before & After:

Hilton Atlanta:

Pala Casino:

Windsor Court New Orleans:

Banquettes:

Boston Hyatt:

Headboards:

Boston Hyatt, fabrics, Hilton Atlanta, Pala Casino, reupholstery, Touch Textiles, upholstery, Windsor Court New Orleans

January 25th, 2012 by TRT Blog

As we announced on Tuesday, this week we released our findings to an ongoing survey that we had been conducting about Product Improvement Plans (PIPs) in the hospitality industry. All of the findings were very interesting and we have been receiving great feedback about the survey from members of the hospitality industry, as well as journalists that have been reporting the results.

One bit of coverage that we really enjoyed, came from Hotel News Now. Today Stephanie Wharton compiled the regular section, ‘5 things to know’, and included some of the key findings from our survey. She included findings such as, 57% of respondents admitted they had experienced leniency from corporate franchisors regarding PIP implementation and 61.5% of managers believe travelers are unsympathetic to lapses in hotel renovation.

To see the entire article, go the HotelNewsNow.com.

coverage, Hotel News Now, HotelNewsNow.com, PIPs, Product Improvement Plans, Stephanie Wharton, survey, survey results

January 24th, 2012 by TRT Blog

The hospitality sector has faced new and challenging pressures in this slow economic recovery period. In particular, Product Improvement Plans (PIPs) have proved to be great source of concern for hotels owners across the US. To try to understand exactly how hotel owners feel about these franchisor-enforced PIPs, The Refinishing Touch recently conducted a survey which asked the largest hotel chains in the US about the financial and operational pressure PIPs, customers, and the economy places on them.

PIPs are used by corporate hotel franchisors to ensure that all locations are maintained and up to date. While many chains suspended PIPs in 2009 and 2010 to alleviate hotel owners from some economic pressures, PIPs were again a common occurrence in 2011.

The Refinishing Touch found that although many hotel owners found leniency from corporate owners, the majority were still concerned over cost commitment for the plans. The survey also found that many hotel owners feel that guests and hotel patrons are unforgiving of lapses in renovation and most owners feel that brand competition has greatly increased since the recession. 

To read the full release and learn more about the survey findings, please visit our website at http://www.therefinishingtouch.com/news.php.

hospitality, Hotels, PIPs, Product Improvement Plans

January 3rd, 2012 by TRT Blog

With another year gone, many of us are looking towards 2012 and predicting what this new year will bring. From hotels to education to government, we are interested in all of this year’s industry trends and predictions.

Last week, Travel Weekly previewed 2012 for the hospitality industry, after 2011 brought higher hotel demands than expected. Analysts are predicting that 2012 will bring a five percent increase in revenue per available room, but say occupancy growth may continue to decline.

With this trend, hotels will continue to increase their bottom line and should expect to see growth in hotel profits. While this growth might be a decrease from 2011’s numbers, consultancy Pricewaterhouse Coopers, forecasted that 2012 occupancy rates would reach 60 percent for the first time since 2007.

2012 is also expected to bring increased hotel renovations and repairs, as franchisers begin to push hotel owners to spend more money in this area.

Here at The Refinishing Touch, we hope that hotels will continue to grow in both rates and occupancy, since the hospitality industry tends to mirror the performance of the US economy. To read the entire article and predictions visit Travel Weekly, Preview 2012: Hotels.

2012, hospitality, Hotels, predictions, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, PwC, Travel Weekly

December 27th, 2011 by TRT Blog

The Refinishing Touch works with businesses across multiple industries to achieve the same goal—reuse and repurpose what they already own. In our most recent Lodging Hospitality online article, we discuss how seemingly different industries can come together and share successful solutions to meet industry standards, maximize customer service and maintain commitments to sustainability.

By naming some of the overlooked similarities between the education, hospitality, and government industries, such as time pressures and budget constraints, it makes it clear that cross industry transparency and communication is more important than ever. 

In the article, we stress that by refinishing and refurbishing furniture and paying close attention to proper asset management, industries can benefit both economically and environmentally.

To read the entire article or to share your thoughts on the topic visit LHonline.com. To learn more about The Refinishing Touch visit www.therefinishingtouch.com.

article, communication, Lodging Hospitality, Mario Insenga, similarities, Sustainability

December 16th, 2011 by TRT Blog

As the temperatures begin to drop across most of the country, we were lucky enough to spend a few days last week in sunny Palm Beach, Florida attending the first ever BITAC Owners event. The event brought hotel industry executives and suppliers together to discuss thoughts and ideas on the current state and future direction of hotel branding.

The event combined panel discussions, attendee polling, and industry speakers. We were particularly interested in the panel discussion that tackled asset value for hotel brands, touching on social media, new technology systems, and the evolution of green hotels:

• 44% of attendees said that social media was the biggest challenge for them to keep up with, 38% said it was the ever-changing technological systems.
• 12% of attendees thought that half of hotel guests want green hotels, while 58% said the drive for green hotels is still in early stages.

We also had the opportunity to listen to Bruce Ford from Lodging Econometrics, a hotel industry project research firm, discuss the state of the industry, including lodging trends and markets, why top markets continue to dominate, and how brands and banks are forcing hotel owners to renovate.

The BITAC Owners event was a great experience for The Refinishing Touch, and we thoroughly enjoyed the event. We always love the opportunity to meet with hotel owners directly and create relationships across the industry.  We can’t wait for next year!

2011, BITAC, BITAC Owners event, Bruce Ford, event, hospitality, hotel industry, Lodging Econometrics, panel discussion

December 9th, 2011 by TRT Blog

When you think of cruises, you think of beautiful waters, fresh air and exotic destinations. But what people don’t tend to think about is the effect large cruise ships have on the pristine environments they’re traveling to.

However, Royal Caribbean has now committed to do that type of thinking for their passengers. The hospitality company has begun to convert all of their 42 ships, across five different brands, into sustainable, environmentally conscious vessels.

To do this Royal Caribbean has concentrated in three key areas. First, energy and air—each vessel has its own power plant on board, making efficiency a high priority. Over the last decade or so, Royal Caribbean worked to use 50% less energy per guest. Second, water—each boat purifies its water discharge before putting it off the boat. The company invested more than $100 million in this technology. And third, waste—Royal Caribbean estimates that each passenger produces 1.1 pounds of trash per day, which is about three pounds less than if they were to stay at home.

While such efforts often go unnoticed by traveling passengers, these are the type of steps that more companies should be taking to decrease their operational environmental impact and their carbon footprint. Because who wouldn’t want to go on a green vacation if they could?

carbon footprint, environmental sustainability, Royal Caribbean Cruise, Travel